Northwestern High School (Michigan)

Detroit Collegiate Preparatory Academy at Northwestern is a public high school in Detroit, part of Detroit Public Schools Community District, the re-named successor to Northwestern High School. The most recent enrollment figures for Northwestern indicate a student population of approximately 2,000. The school features numerous extracurricular activities, including Debate, US Army JROTC, and interscholastic and intramural athletics. NHS also offers several advanced placement (AP) courses. Northwestern serves as the neighborhood high school for Highland Park residents, as no senior high schools exist within Highland Park boundaries. As of 2018 about 180 students from Highland Park attended Northwestern. Athletics and notable alumni include the legend alumni athlete Ron Teasley, the first African American captain of the Colts basketball team. After college, he returned as a Teacher, Mentor and Coach at Northwestern taking the basketball and baseball teams to PSL championships and produced several outstanding athletes who went on to play professionally. He is a NW Hall of Famer and is still active in the alumni association. Alumni also includes some of the students who would go on to help shape the legendary rhythm and blues label Motown Records, namely Mary Wells and James Jamerson. History In 2012 Southwestern High School closed; many former Southwestern students were rezoned to Northwestern. Highland Park Community High School of Highland Park Schools closed in 2015. DPS became the designated school district for the high school students of Highland Park, and Northwestern High became the zoned high school for the city. That year United Automobile Workers (UAW)-Ford financed a renovation of the school's athletic facilities. Athletics For more than one hundred years, Northwestern High School has produced many outstanding student athletes who have excelled at the collegiate level and beyond. Colt alumni achievements include National Collegiate Athletic Association championships and Olympic gold medals. In 2007-2008, Northwestern High won the Detroit Public School League Championship in boys' basketball and boys' football in the same school year. Since 1919, Northwestern basketball teams have claimed a total of sixteen DPSSAL titles. Northwestern also won the 1928 Michigan High School Athletic Association basketball championship. Coach Bert Maris led Northwestern's swimming and diving program to three consecutive MHSAA team titles (1925 through 1927). In 1930, the Colt swimming team, coached by Leo Maas, won another MHSAA championship trophy; Maas also guided the school to five consecutive DPSSAL titles (1933 through 1937). To this day, Northwestern remains the only Detroit public high school to win a state team championship in the sport of swimming and diving. Bert Maris and Coach Warren Hoyt led Northwestern to the 1925 MHSAA title in track. Coach Malcom Weaver and the Colts won the state track championship in 1927, 1929 and 1930. The Michigan high school sports archives also document Northwestern's MHSAA championship titles in tennis (1927), and cross country (1929). Due to the influx of Highland Park students, as of about 2015 the school was in the process of restoring its marching band and the wrestling programs that had been popular at Highland Park Renaissance High. The school's gymnasium, paint room, weight training room, and swimming pool were scheduled to receive renovations circa 2015. Notable alumni Norman Whitfield (1958), Motown songwriter Otis Williams (1959) of the Temptations References External links Detroit Collegiate Preparatory Academy at Northwestern Profile at Detroit Public Schools Community District "Inside Detroit Public Schools » Northwestern High School." Detroit Public Schools Community District. November 14, 2008.